Give poll schedule, Oppn alliance tells Musharraf
ISLAMABAD, Dec 4 — Pakistan’s newest political alliance today urged the country’s military rulers to immediately announce an election schedule and lift political curbs imposed in the wake of U.S. President Bill Clinton’s visit, in March.

Israel attacks refugee camp in
Bethlehem
jerusalem, Dec 4 — Israeli helicopter gunships launched a rocket attack overnight on a Palestinian refugee camp near the West Bank town of Bethlehem in a fresh outbreak of violence amid faltering efforts to restore calm to the region.

Probe into blacks losing voting
rightTHE US Justice Department announced yesterday that it had launched an inquiry into claims that thousands of black Floridians were stripped of their right to vote in Florida by a state government run by Governor Jeb Bush, the brother of the Republican presidential candidate.

EU not to sever
ties with Pak
ISLAMABAD, Dec 4 — The European Union wants early restoration of democracy in Pakistan but will not sever political contact with the military-led government in the country.

Lankan PM backs peace process
colombo, Dec 4 — Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister has said he will not stand in the way of a fledgling Norwegian peace initiative to end the country’s protracted ethnic war, state media reported today.

Ershad plea on fine rejected
DHAKA, Dec 4 — The Bangladesh apex court has rejected the plea of Gen
H.M. Ershad (retd), a former military ruler currently serving jail term to pay the fine of taka 5.5 crore ($ 1 million) in instalments to stay out of
prision.

Will Hrithik magic
work in S. Africa?DURBAN, Dec 4 — Bollywood hearthrob Hrithik Roshan was roped in for a new role, albeit unwittingly! Now, the rising star’s poster was used to woo South African Indian voters in the local government elections to be held across the country tomorrow.

ISLAMABAD, Dec 4 (Reuters, ANI) — Pakistan’s newest political alliance today urged the country’s military rulers to immediately announce an election schedule and lift political curbs imposed in the wake of U.S. President Bill Clinton’s visit, in March.

The newly created 18-party Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) also said it would be ready for a “meaningful dialogue” with military ruler, Gen Pervez Musharraf, who has refused to hold national elections until October 2002.

“The ARD forcefully demands that a time-frame for elections be immediately announced and there should be no restrictions on political activities such as public rallies and marches,” alliance chief Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan told a news conference.

The government banned public rallies and marches in a move designed to avoid possible protests when President Clinton stopped in Islamabad for a few hours at the end of a South Asian tour. It had promised to lift the ban after Clinton’s visit but has continued with the restriction, citing concerns for keeping the peace.

The ARD was formed late last night when the country’s most bitter political rivals joined for the first time to oppose the nearly 14-month-old military rule and demanded immediate national elections under an interim government.

The government dismissed the demand for immediate elections and pointed to its plans to hold staggered elections for local councils between the end of this month and mid-2001 with political parties barred from taking part.

Mr Nasrullah Khan said Gen Musharraf’s plan was a carbon copy of similar bodies created by two former military rulers — Field Marshal Ayub Khan in the 1960s and Gen Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq in the late 1970s — to tighten their grip on the country.

“The plan seems to be to use these local bodies to create a king’s party and manipulate elections for the national and provincial assemblies,’’ he said.

Others participating in the ARD include some strong regional groups such as the Awami National Party based in the North-West Frontier Province and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement based in the port city of Karachi.

In a statement, the ARD pledged to deny any political role to the military, which has ruled for about half Pakistan’s 53-year life, and said its parties would “coordinate, mobilise, organise and struggle together through peaceful means for the restoration of democracy at the earliest”.

Gen Musharraf has said he will create a new political leadership and deny any political role to Bhutto or Sharif, both of whom he accuses of corruption — charges the two deny.

The ARD statement pledged the component parties “not to repeat the mistakes of the past” and “not to allow any political role to the armed forces”.

The 18-party alliance emerged after the Pakistan Muslim League joined the alliance.

The alliance took the final shape after two rounds of talks — one held at the residence of Mr Nasrullah Khan who was named president, and the other at the residence of Mr Zafar Ali Shah. When asked whether the ARD would accept offer of dialogue from Gen Pervez Musharraf, Mr Nasrullah Khan said no democrat can decline the offer provided the dialogue would be meaningful and substantive.

He demanded that the accountability and holding of elections should be delinked. If elections could be held in Iran during war times, why should elections not be held in Pakistan even if the accountability is being conducted, he said.

He said the basic purpose of forming an alliance was to strengthen the public opinion so that no one could try to grab power through use of force. “We are seeking a final verdict of the court of people,” he said.

jerusalem,
Dec 4 (afp) — Israeli helicopter gunships launched a rocket attack overnight on a Palestinian refugee camp near the West Bank town of Bethlehem in a fresh outbreak of violence amid faltering efforts to restore calm to the region.

Three Palestinians were injured as the helicopters destroyed two houses from where military sources said Palestinians had opened fire on soldiers guarding Rachel’s Tomb, a strongly fortified Jewish shrine on the northern edge of the West Bank city.

The bombardment followed what the Israeli army described as an attempt by armed Palestinians to storm the tomb, revered by Jews as the resting place of the biblical matriarch Rachel.

A gunbattle raged in the area between Israeli troops and armed Palestinians for some three hours, military sources said.

The site in Bethlehem and villages surrounding the town have often been the scene of violent confrontations since the eruption of the deadly tide of Israeli-Palestinian unrest that has claimed the lives of some 300 people in over nine weeks.

“The Israeli army considers with utmost gravity this attack against a holy site which follows the destruction of Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus,” army spokesman Yarden Vatikay told afp.

Israel said yesterday it would work with an international fact-finding committee due to start this month investigating the violence, dropping its early objections to the inquiry.

Palestinian officials have said the five-member committee, headed by former us senator George Mitchell, was expected in the region on December 11, almost two months after the Sharm el-Sheikh summit in Egypt in October decided to set it up.

But there has been little progress in efforts to bring a halt to the bloodshed that has shattered the peace process and forced the Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, into calling for new elections.

Mr Barak’s Chief of Staff Gilad Sher said yesterday the “violence has diminished in intensity, but not enough for peace negotiations on the key issues to resume.”

And the White House admitted yesterday that while the us president, Mr Bill Clinton and Mr Barak discussed a broad array of issues concerning the Middle East in a telephone conversation, there were no specific proposals on the peace process.

“There was no proposal of a next step that I was aware of,” White House spokesman p.J. Crowley said.

He said the two leaders had talked about a fact-finding committee set up by Mr Clinton to look into the causes of violence in Palestinian territories, US aid to countries in the region and the peace process in general.

THE US Justice Department announced yesterday that it had launched an inquiry into claims that thousands of black Floridians were stripped of their right to vote in Florida by a state government run by Governor Jeb Bush, the brother of the Republican presidential candidate.

The inquiry, led by the department’s civil rights division, has been under way since Thursday and will focus on claims by black community leaders that the minorities were targeted by police intimidation and a series of administrative measures in the months running up to the election which had the effect of disproportionately disenfranchising black voters.

“African-Americans were targeted to be disenfranchised,” the Rainbow coalition leader, Reverend Jesse Jackson, said yesterday.

The disputed ballots that have left Governor George W Bush with a 537-vote margin in Florida are dwarfed by the alleged systematic disenfranchisement of many black Floridians. Blacks who did vote supported Vice President Al Gore by a ratio of more than 10 to one.

The Gore campaign has so far avoided entering into a highly charged legal battle over racial disenfranchisement, However, the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) announced yesterday that it would bring a case to court on the strength of 300 pages of testimony and 486 plaintiffs. — The Guardian, London

colombo,
Dec 4 (Reuters) — Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister has said he will not stand in the way of a fledgling Norwegian peace initiative to end the country’s protracted ethnic war, state media reported today.

“If an individual...is saying that his movement is ready to enter the peace process, I would not impair it in the slightest way,” Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake was quoted as saying by the state-owned Daily News.

The remarks appear to be a dramatic about-face for Mr Wickremanayake, who has consistently opposed peace talks, and was quoted by the same newspaper one week ago as saying that the military option should be pursued until the rebels were eliminated.

The report comes a week after LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran raised peace hopes by offering to negotiate unconditionally with the government, dropping previous demands that a truce and troop withdrawal precede any negotiations. The conditions had made peace talks a non-starter for the government.

“What all of us are yearning for is peace and I do not propose anything further than that,” Mr Wickremanayake was quoted as saying on Saturday at Horana, 40 km southeast of Colombo.

DHAKA, Dec 4 (PTI) — The Bangladesh apex court has rejected the plea of Gen H.M. Ershad (retd), a former military ruler currently serving jail term to pay the fine of taka 5.5 crore ($ 1 million) in instalments to stay out of prision.

Ershad’s legal battle to stay out of prison apparently received a jolt yesterday, when a Full Bench of the appellate division of the Supreme Court gave the verdict after hearing former President’s petition.

Earlier on November 23, while confirming the conviction of the former military ruler in a corruption case, the Supreme Court reduced the punishment saying that Ershad could come out from jail on payment of the penalty.

DURBAN, Dec 4 (IANS) — Bollywood hearthrob Hrithik Roshan was roped in for a new role, albeit unwittingly! Now, the rising star’s poster was used to woo South African Indian voters in the local government elections to be held across the country tomorrow.

Cashing in on Hrithik’s huge popularity, South Africa’s opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) sponsored a full-page poster in the latest edition of the country’s only weekly for the Indian community, Post.

Thousands of readers of the paper, especially younger ones and women, are expected to use the pinup page and the DA is hoping that it will create greater awareness for the party, which consists of the former ruling white minority National Party and the former White Liberal Democratic Party.

MEXICO CITY, Dec 4 (DPA) — Mexican President Vincente Fox said he would meet the conditions the Zapatista rebel leader demanded to return to peace talks.

Mr Fox, speaking with farmers groups in Metepec in central Mexico, said yesterday he would fulfill as quickly as possible the conditions Subcomandante Marcos set on Saturday. The demands included the closure of seven army bases in
Chiapas, the region, the release from prison of Zapatista supporters, and the passage of the law —”Rights and Culture of Indigenous People”.

London, Dec 4 (IANS) — Miss World Priyanka Chopra has admitted she gave wrong answer to a key question in the competition that has launched her new career of international stardom.

Ironically, it was this same answer, when Ms Chopra said she admired Mother Teresa from the bottom of her heart, that clinched her victory in the Miss World finals here on Thursday night.

WORLD BRIEFS

Astronauts instal solar panelsCAPE CANAVERAL: Space shuttle Endeavour’s astronauts attached the world’s largest, most powerful set of solar panels to the International Space Station, then watched with delight and relief as the first glittering wing unfurled. The task on Sunday evening was as monumental as the wings themselves. The future of space station construction hinged on the astronauts’ ability to install the $ 600 million solar panels, which will provide the much needed power to the newly inhabited outpost. — AP

After Dolly, it’s Britney the henLONDON: Edinburgh scientists who earned fame for cloning Dolly the sheep have created Britney the hen whose eggs may help produce drugs to fight cancer. The scientists of Roslin Institute, who first cloned an adult mammal in 1996, altered the hen’s genetic make-up so that the whites of its eggs are rich in tailored proteins which will form the basis of new drugs that can be commercially available within two years, The Mail reported on Sunday.

Red wine bottle
sold for $ 13,000ROME: A 109-year-old bottle of exceptionally rare Italian vintage red wine, described by experts as a “work of art”, was sold at an auction for more than $ 13,000. The bottle of 1891 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva Biondi Santi, one of the seven bottles in existence, was sold to an anonymous Dutch collector on Sunday.
— Reuters

China to gift two
pandas to USABEIJING: China is ready to ship two giant pandas to the USA as a mark of friendship between the two nations, the state media reported. Three-year-old Tian Tian, a male, and two-year-old Mei Xiang, a female, will be staying in the USA for 10 years. During their stay in the USA, American biologists will study the pandas, which is an endangered species that receives top state protection in China.
— PTI

Pulitzer awardee
Brooks deadCHICAGO: Gwendolyn Brooks, who won a Pulitzer prize for writing candid and compassionate poetry that delved into poverty, racism and drugs among black people, has died. She was 83. Family friend Leron Bennett said Brooks died after a short illness. Rayner A.A. and Sons funeral home confirmed her death on Sunday night.
— AP

Indian appointed
foundation trusteeWASHINGTON: US President Bill Clinton has named an Indian as a trustee of the prestigious Christopher Colombus Fellowship Foundation. The non-resident Indian, Mr Arun Bhumitra, is the founder and CEO of Arjay Telecom, a White House press note said. Mr Bhumitra is a mechanical engineering graduate from Nagpur University and an MBA from Dowling College in New York.
— PTI

Four killed in gunbattleZAMBOANGA CITY (Philippines): At least four persons were killed and 24 others wounded in a clash between government troops and Muslim extremists holding captive an American and a Filipino on a southern Philippine island, the military sources said on Monday. A military report said two soldiers died and 24 others were wounded when the gunbattle erupted on Sunday between the troops and Abu Sayyaf rebels on Jolo Island, Sulu province, 1,000 km South of Manila.
— DPA

Roerich’s remains
may be shiftedMOSCOW: Before his death, painter and orientologist Syyatoslav Roerich had been telling his actress wife Devika Rani and friends that he should be interred in St Petersburg in close proximaty to his ancestors’ graves. To honour his wish, Russia was negotiating with India for shifting Roerich’s remains from Bangalore, Novosti disclosed here quoting India-based Russian envoy Alexander Kadakin.
— UNI

Burial tombs found
in VietnamHANOI: Vietnamese archaeologists have discovered ancient burial tombs outside the capital which may shed further light on the country’s bronze age culture, state media said on Monday. Two tombs, between 2,300 and 2,400 years old, are now being excavated in Ha Tay province’s Chau Can commune, 30 km south of Hanoi, Sai Gon Gia Phong (liberated Saigon) newspaper said.
— DPA